Keeping Your Monetary Assets on a Leash

“Are you working for your money or is your money working for you?”

This has to be the most commonly used phrase in any financial security and management book. Cultivating a culture of understanding money and money usage are ones of the most vital skills in your life. But, on the other hand – isn’t money artificially created in order to keep things valued? We, the modern world Homo Sapiens really are obsessed with measuring and micro-managing everything.

Money as a mighty tool of life is an imperative necessity. Some people need it, some do anything breakneck to earn it and some couldn’t care less. I have walked through all these phases. Well, I haven’t done anything hazardous for money, but I craved for it during my teenage phase (like many other fellow teenagers). Then, there were situations in my life when I couldn’t care less because my top priority was to finish school and get a job but now - I only need it. You know, mortgages and bills and stuffs.

Along the road of adulthood, I have come to notice that numerous people around me are dreaded to face the truth of their money spending habits. Some of them are very venerable individuals and the fact of lacking accountability baffles me because under all the suits and ties, and highly valued statuses, they operate their financial situations no different than others.

If you are one of those people who are not afraid of facing the antichrist reality of monetary responsibility and cold hard numbers, then I suggest you keep reading.

Understanding Money (Simply Portrayed)

At the very beginning, the paper money and metal coins we are using today were beyond imagination, so people used items to trade for other items. The modern day money came into play when a brainy individual realized the convenience of off-loading excess burden for long sales trips. It definitely eased the effort of making distanced journeys because no one had to carry fifty skins of squirrels and twelve camels anymore.

Mundane Usage of Money

First things first – are you the kind of a person who likes to care for your money and manage the expenses YET living paycheck to paycheck?

Don’t worry, the vast majority are. No matter how hard you endeavor to cut down redundant money usage, you still wind up having ten bucks inside your pocket at the last week of the month. Certainly, facing the fact that nearly the rest of the population is living the same lifestyle is not going to eradicate your problem.

How about making more money instead? We’ll come to that part later.

There are several comprehensive and fundamental ways to keep track of your expenses - like keeping a journal, downloading a money managing app, saving all the receipts - but in reality, you will only make an effort doing these things for a couple of weeks…better yet, a couple of days. Are you ready to try my eccentric and fun method to save yourself a bit of allowance so you don’t need to cope with white breads and H2O by the end of the month, especially when your colleagues are inviting you out for a lunch?

My solution - I anti-shop superfluous things right into my bank account. That’s it. Until next time…

Haha, very funny. No, allow me to clarify.

The premise of the idea came to life when I unconsciously began putting aside shopping money into an extra account. Did I tell you that I was a shopaholic? Yes, I was, and still enjoy every minute of it, but now I no longer need more stuffs. The system that I began to iteratively implement was saving every dime from things I didn’t need by putting the money right into the extra bank account instead of trading it for materials. The needless things could be clothes, sweets, alcohol, fast foods, sugary beverages and coffee. Don’t get me wrong, I still spend money on these things, only a lot less because it makes my mind tick every time I’m about to evaporate my modern day squirrel skins.

Start a new account and start anti-shopping.

Make More Money

Are you trading your precious hours for money or making money sweating for yourself? In other words, are you making passive or active incomes or both? I prefer both.

While you’re exchanging time for money, you are removing your life for currency (ironically, time is your most valuable currency). And when you’re making passive income, your money-earning procedure happens whether you’re alive or not. Please stay alive, else the money gets no use. Some people prefer one over another, but I root for both.

I’m an introvert living inside an extrovert. I like meeting people yet value my own company. If I had liberty to rub the bottle for the Genie then I would fully support the idea of passive incomes, but I may retreat to my man-cave to live like a stereotypical 10-year-old Asian nerd.

Having more money available is definitely fun but how many of you have spent more when you have earned more? I know a lot of people who have had brilliant promotions and raises, but the next thing they did was to upgrade their lifestyle – the way they lived or the car they drove. And according to this theory, making more money doesn’t necessarily mean swimming in more coins like Uncle Scrooge.

Nevertheless. Try to gain more wealth with a principle of not spending on needless things.

In summary – Wealth is built by emerging the procedures of making money and ceasing excessive spending on unnecessary things. Notice, I didn’t say “saving money”. Saving money usually means being frugal (and at worst – cheap). But tracking your spending habits and anti-shopping redundancy retains and maintains wealth for snowy days. Embrace yourself, the winter is coming.

Thanks for spending time with me again and see you next time!